Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Lydia and I recently picked up the Arkham Horror Card Game. Made by much of the same crew who put together my beloved Lord of the Rings card game, Arkham Horror sees players teaming up to face the Eldritch Gods that live just beyond our realm.

The game has been built from the ground up with a focus on campaign play, including a neat system for "leveling up" certain cards by spending experience between games. Here, we begin with two basic starter decks and play through the first scenario in the included campaign.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) is a beast and I love it. It is among one of the largest vehicles you will see on the table and is a real centerpiece for an army. Today I will review the LVT Buffalo from Warlord Games and discuss it in game. I will only be speaking about the use of the LVT with Commonwealth forces this time, as the entry differs slightly from those available to the US.

I finally made it down to Fall In! in Lancaster PA for the first time in my mini-gaming career. I've made it to Historicon before, but never Fall in. It was a well run really laid back convention, and I got a chance to meet a lot of people the WWPD crew has spoken so much about in podcast or article form.

I decided not to play in the Doubles on Friday, which in retrospect was a mistake, since I had my winter germans with me , and it looked like a blast. But I did jump into the Mid War tournament the following day. I took a lot of pictures (with my good camera) and can honestly say that after a lot of travel and a lot of tournaments, I lucked out with the best 3 man panel of opponents I've ever had. All were funny, gracious, and solid players. I had a really hard time voting for favorite opponent.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Road to Victory is finally here. After months of play testing and editing we are ready to release it to the BA community.

Our games over the last several months have been challenging and entertaining. Road to Victory is a campaign where generals play a series of games, growing the size of their platoon between each game using a unit randomizer. The randomization of units present players with unique combinations of units and challenges they might not other wise field.

Back with a sweaty vengeance, the crew of the flesh star destroyer brings you Episode 25 brought to you by Correlian Chew- the best treat in the galaxy! Things start off with a review of what the boys have been up to recently, including a quick World's review. Next up, the crew give a once-over to the new squadrons in Corellian Conflict, before moving on to the new objectives featured in the campaign! Yea, or Nay? Yea!

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

"This is....Everything, 2 .30 cal machine guns, 11 Hawkins Mines, 17 grenades, two bazookas but we only got 8 rounds left, and assorted small arms. We had a 60mm mortar, but an arty round took it out. Might as well be spit wads if we run into some tanks." - Saving Private Ryan

I've always been fascinated by the British Airborne's campaign during Operation Market Garden. The ambition of it, the audacity, the courageousness it took to hang on that long. All the books I've read, documentaries I've watched, have made it a life's goal to visit the sites in Holland and see it some day. And I know it is a relatively competitive force in Flames of War. So I went about collecting it all. But I didn't want to start assembling it or painting it before I was ready to do it justice.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Back in part 1 of this piece, I began to offer some advice for the new recruits to the Flames of War game, after they've purchased the Open Fire boxed set from Battlefront.

In this part, let's look at topics like: more basic items to get for your gaming bag or box, and things to consider as you make that initial decision on which nation’s army to begin collecting.

More stuff to buy!

Talk to any gamer, and you'll probably find they prefer something different than the last gamer you talked to. Take measuring devices. My own preference for this tool is either a small tape measure, or one of BattleFront's weirdly shaped measuring sticks (they call them “RangeFinders"). This little tool has different sides, each with a measurement that is used in the game. Since I'm in the US, the Imperial measurements of six inches, four inches, one inch and two inches are all represented on the rangefinder.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Welcome to another tutorial from the team at the Bolt Action Alliance, this time I, Patchimus, will cover how to paint a Panzer Lehr squad to a good tabletop quality. I have been heavily influenced by 'The Painting War - WW2' so if you want a more definitive and diverse guide do yourself a favour a pick this book up. This guide will concentrate on the uniform and equipment only to keep it a reasonable size, that being said I have skipped over the flesh part however you can locate another guide from Master Bryan here that can assist you. All the paints I have used are Vallejo (Running joke among the crew is that I pronounce it Valley-Joe, which is apparently very wrong but I cant help it!) unless otherwise stated.

In this episode Mitch and Sean go to Fall In 2016 which is hosted by HMGS. The guys talk too many of the folks at the event and discuss a wide variety of games as well as listen to the concerns some have about Flames of War Version 4.

From our LA studio, Tyler interviews his girlfriend Ashley about her video and board gaming addiction.

For comments, concerns, or if you want us to come out and cover an event, please contact me at WWPDMitch@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MitchWWPD.
Ron Wismer’s Fireman podcast is called Mythic Giraffe and you can find him on twitter @mythicgiraffe or on facebook.
Matt MacKenzie aka Matt Varnish can be found here on Dice Devils, and of course on WWPD.net
Ashley Nekomata’s Youtube page can be found here.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Dirty 30 baby! It’s been a helluva run for the guys but there is no looking back now!
We hit the N00b News lines in Act I for you, covering off some of the new releases from around the gaming world and just generally talking about toys. Beware the segues though…
Act II sees Dan and Greg with some input from Damo talking about their latest accomplishment, FlamesCon 2016, the largest singles Flames of War tournament in New Zealand.
Finally, the news in the FoW world has all been around Pete’s interview with our mates at the WWPD. We have a chat about what we think it all means and what it could lead to.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

The Bo-105P PAH (TGBX12) HOT missile launching whirlybird of tank death! This is a nasty little mobile anti-tank launching missile platform...and is next in our Tips and Tricks series covering the forces in Battlefront'sTeam YankeeWest German Forces. The PAH is the West Germans anti-tank helicopter. You can get 2 flights of up to 4 birds in a flight for 16 points. Now this is interesting because the US Cobra Platoon is 4 Cobras for 14 points and you can get 4 Hinds for 10 points...say what? The PAH has Hunter Killer like the Cobra but doesn't have Thermal or any other weapons besides the "shoot while halted" missile and the Cobra has a gun AND rockets in addition to the TOWs. What you do get though is a missile with Anti-Tank of 23 (2 more than the Cobra's TOW and equal to the Hind's Spiral) and the same range as the Cobra's TOW and double that of the Hinds Spiral. The big difference is the PAH has a Skill and Morale of 3+ vs the Cobra's 4+. The big deal here is being able to make the Blitz move at better odds...does that equal a 2 point difference between the Cobra and PAH for the better Anti-tank, Skill and Morale increase for only 1 weapons vs the Cobras 3? Maybe? All I know is that they look REALLY cool and this article is about building and painting these awesome models anyways...and that they are the only helos the Germans get well they are what you get.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

If you are new to the Flames of War hobby tournaments may be a bit intimidating if you’ve never been to one. Or, you may not have any in your area to attend. I can understand. Here in my neck of the woods of Sunny Southern California (USA), tournament are about as prevalent as rain or snowstorms in that same area. In other words, almost non-existent. I recently relocated to SoCal from the USA’s midwest, where FOW tournaments blossom like dandelions in a country lawn.

So, when I find one in my own back yard, a mere 40 minute drive away, I try to make sure I can get to it. Originally, I was scheduled to make a four-plus hour drive to Las Vegas, and attend a two day tournament there - but family commitments interfered with that plan. I was afraid this local tourney was going to face the same fate. Fortunately, I was able to finagle the family schedule and sneak in a day of gaming around the other activities.

This tourney was held at The Realms Comics and Games in Brea California. A nice little shop in Orange County (East of Los Angeles proper). After a few last minute cancelations, the tourney stabilized with eight players. Our lists were pulled from the new hardcover Bulge books. We didn’t have to deal with winter weather on the tables, but all forested areas were treated as sparse, with a 12 inch vision range, instead of six inches.

1685 points of Desert Rats fun!

I elected to run a Desert Rats 7th Armoured Division Mechanized Infantry Company. Two solid platoons of infantry, backed up with two platoons of three Cromwells plus one Challenger, along with heavy mortars, carriers, and Daimlers (with a Dingo). I wanted to find room for more 17-pounders due to the plethora of Jumbos, Panthers and King Tigers that I expected would be swarming the fields,

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

The first test of my new British Team Yankee forces against the Soviet menace was a blood bath. My force consisted of 3 formations and 14 platoons! This wacky force had 7 Chieftains, Swingfire, Mech Platoons, Mortar platoon, Scimitars, Scorpions, Milans all over the place. The Soviets had two large BMP companies, T-72s, Artillery, ZSU, and Recon BMPs.

The Brits held off the Tanks and deployed all the Mech, Mortar, Milan, and Guided Weapons platoon in the defense. The Soviets kept a BMP/ Mech Company, Arty and T-72s in defense. Their attacking force was Recon, ZSU, and a BMP mech company. Neither side took air I think both of use realize its so easily counted by much cheaper AAA vehicles and missiles.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Welcome to another action packed episode! In Act I, the guys discuss tournaments and what everyone has been up to. Act II we talk about some of the questions and issues that we've seen in the forum for Pete and version 4. Finally in Act III, we talk about our current thoughts on Team Yankee. Get ready for another information filled episode!

With the second edition of Bolt Action out, amidst the new rules, we were also given some new missions along with the old. This is great, as the original 6 missions in Bolt Action rulebook had gone a bit stale, so much so that Old Man Morin and Cbax here at WWPD, had added some missions of their own for use at events and in friendly games to keep things fresh. Well, we've decided to do another batch of new missions for 2nd ed. These will eventually also be available as a downloadable PDF from our downloads section, like our last batch of unofficial missions. This first one is converted over from my local Warhammer 40,000 scene which uses a very similar mission with the same name and is a variation of Maximum Attrition, so all credit goes to them!

Monday, November 14, 2016

Dorothy...you ain't in Kansas anymore. This Tornado will send you to a much different place than Oz if you're on the business end of this bad boy. Suffice it to say that a flight of 4 planes for 8 points makes these birds very cost efficient. The are the Nebelwerfers of the sky! I am working on a comparison of all the aircraft that will lay this out. But this article is on the models, so let's get to it!

Battlefront brings the Tornado Flight (TGBX13) to support Battlefront'sTeam YankeeWest German Forces. This model kit is all resin (the first one I can think of truth be told) and very reminiscent of their older aircraft kits.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The fourth game in our Bolt Action campaign saw the Soviets rolling into the outskirts of a city in eastern Europe. The war has moved from Russia and into Europe itself. As the Soviets advance, the Germans desperately throw resources into slowing the Red Tide.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Recently, several members of the Chicago Bolt Action group made a little trek to an event run by our friends in the Michigan Bolt Action Group. Despite grossly early mornings, time zone differences, and biblical rains, we made it and had a great time over the two one-day events! The Michigan Grand Tournament was special for me because it was the first games out with my newly painted Royal Marine Commandos.

I’d modeled my Commandos around No. 10 Inter-Allied Commando, a unit consisting of displaced men from many of the conquered countries of Europe in 1940. There were Poles, Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians, French, and even some displaced Austrians and Germans!

Friday, November 4, 2016

'Tis time to look at Battlefront's West German Gepard Flakpanzer Batterie AA (GBX07) kit for Team Yankee. Where the Roland was nasty...these guys are meanier on several levels. Rolands are good vs Jets and Helos. Gepards are like their namesake cheetah and will run down and kill everything short of Main Battle Tanks. Those twin 57mm autocannons spit death to planes, helicopters, infantry and IFVs. Anti-Tank of 11 and Firepower 4+ with a ROF of 5. That's a lot of dead BMPs with Armor Values of 2...OUCHIE!!!!

This is a standard resin and metal kit. The bulk of it was very clean.

The only metal bits are the 2 pieced radar dish and the gun barrels. The only flash and mold lines were on the barrels. As you can see above, these had a good bit of flash; but, it was all easily cleaned up with a little blade and file work.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Just got in a huge shipment of Dropfleet Commander spaceships, so building up a 16-ship starter fleet for each of the four factions. First up, we have the UCM!

Dropfleet Commander is the latest release form Hawk Wargames. It takes a different spin on the space combat genre in that rather than being a deep space combat game, it focuses on orbital engagements supporting the war on the ground. The game is fought over ground sectors and space stations that you deploy ground forces into, as well as controlling sectors of space in low orbit with your fleets. Your Strike Carriers and Bulk Landers deploy what basically consists of entire Dropzone Commander armies to control spots on the ground while your other ships fight each other in the skies.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

October 1st-3rd saw another successful Bolt Action event at MOAB 2106 in Sydney, Australia. We had 32 players in the end (after 'real life' culled the herd of enthusiastic gamers) and 3 days of Bolt Action gaming. As always there were some terrific tables to play on and the players put in huge efforts to create some truly inspiring painted armies. There was of course all the major powers represented, as well as Bulgarians, LRDG, Hungarians, and even Swedes! Here's a photo report of the weekend.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Hey y'all! SonBae here posting a Batrep done by WWPD South's very own Dane Tkacs covering a Mega Game we held here in Huntsville, Alabama at the Deep Comics and Games from 17-18 September 2016.

From Dane:The Huntsville Historical Gamers (HHG) gathered on SEP 17-18 to recreate Operation Market Garden using the Flames of War ruleset. The HHG Mega-Game stretched over 5 tables. The Mega-Game pitted 10 Axis players against 7 Allied players. Each side had approx. 11,500 points for a mega-Game total of 23,000 points. Lists were chosen from the forces in Market Garden for the Allies or Bridge by Bridge for the Germans